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July 2025 • VOL. 42 No. 3

High vacancies? Sluggish leasing activity? Not at Minneapolis’ SPS Tower By Dan Rafter, Editor

The Turf Club at SPS Tower. (Photo courtesy of SPS Tower.)

he office sector continues to struggle. But that doesn’t mean that all office properties face high vacancies and low levels of leasing activity. High-quality, Class-A space with full amenities packages? They continue to attract tenants.

by Sumitomo Corporation, now boasts an occupancy rate of 72%. This ranks among the highest occupancy rates for a downtown Minneapolis office building.

building attractive to tenants who are trying to bring their employees back to the office on at least a parttime basis.

What’s behind the success? It starts with quality.

Just look at SPS Tower, a 655,070-square-foot Class-A office building in downtown Minneapolis.

The flight to quality is real, as tenants increasingly seek space in higher-end, Class-A office properties. Many of these tenants are leasing smaller amounts of space but paying more per square foot for it.

Jim Montez, vice president of agency leasing with Transwestern’s Minneapolis office, handles leasing for SPS Tower. He said that the property is benefitting from the flight-to-quality movement.

This tower notched 52,540 square feet of leasing activity recently, with three existing tenants either renewing or expanding their leases. The tower, owned

SPS Tower fits in that definition of higher-quality, Class-A space. It also boasts amenities that make the

“The success starts with a great team,” Montez said. “It always starts there. That includes the ownership group. The building has an amazing owner, one of the Vacancies to page 12

Paving the way for the future generation of leaders: Murnane stepping down as head of Minneapolis’ Opus By Dan Rafter, Editor

that Opus, one of the busiest development, design and construction companies in the Minneapolis area, boasts a talented roster of talent. It was time to tap these professionals to lead the firm, he said.

Murnane, who will have served 15 years in his leadership role as of the date of his retirement, said

“At Opus, we’ve always focused on succession planning and making sure we have great leaders identified early on. We’ve always provided these leaders with

t’s time to let the next generation of leadership step up. That’s why Tim Murnane, the long-time president and chief executive officer of Minnetonka, Minnesota-based Opus, announced his retirement late last month.

the tools and resources that they need,” Murnane said. “There’s nothing magical about having a 15-year term. But that is a long time for a CEO. It’s the right time for me to retire personally and the right time to let the next generation of leaders come up.”

Opus to page 14